>> pete wins! jedediah: see you guys tomorrow, goodbye, everyone! neil: well now it's getting scary today the u.s. warning commercial flights could be missidentified near the persian gulf, this after oil tankers and refining operations throughout the middle east are coming under increasing attack, and nerves are getting increasingly frayed. signs point to iran but not everyone is so sure. welcome everybody happy saturday i'm neil cavuto and the pentagon is set to brief lawmakers on what they know come tuesday, to our jennifer griffin on the answers we're already getting today. hey, jennifer. reporter: hi, neil well lawmakers received a classified briefing from u.s. security officials on friday explaining of the intelligence that u.s. national security officials

say showed iran was preparing to strike u.s. forces using proxy forces in iraq, and possible missiles on board ships with the uss abraham lincoln in the gulf u.s. officials say they have seen signs the missiles that they say iran had loaded on to at least two ships have been removed. foreign passport holders working with exxon-mobile have started evacuating an oil field in southern iraq, which follows the ordered evacuation of u.s. embassy personnel from the u.s. embassy in baghdad. that warning to commercial airliners flying over the wider persian gulf is a grim reminder that 30 years ago the u.s. miss took an iranian passenger jet for a war plane, while protecting commercial ships and the u.s. navy fired two surface-to-air missiles killing all 290 people on board. president trump pushed back on news reports that he is angry with his national security team. president trump: they put out so many false messages that iran is

totally confused that might be a good thing. reporter: the press has offered to negotiate with the iranians a message delivered through the swiss who represent the u.s. and the u.s. pulled out of the nuclear deal a year ago and listed iran's islamic revolutionary guard as a terrorist group last month, raising fears in baghdad that iraq could become the site of a proxy war between the u.s. and iran. secretary of state mike pompeo reportedly told iraqi leaders you're either with us or stand out of the way. and a senior administration official briefing reporters last night said this is an incredibly serious situation. we take it seriously, and i can assure you, they should too. back to you, neil. neil: jennifer thank you very very much. all right now that we're already learning about commercial flight s should be extra cautious in that region, should we fear what could be coming next? former deputy undersecretary of defense, and intelligence retired general jerry boykin. general, obviously, we're seeing this every day and i'm wondering

whether, you know, in that environment even things could go very very wrong. >> yeah, i think we have to take it seriously, neil. one miss calculation could literally start a significant war in that part of the world. now, i don't believe that at this point that we're that close to an actual exchange of fire but you never know, and i think that what the iranians are doing is they are trying to find a way out of this, because among other things, the sanctions are killing them. they've cut the pay of hezbollah in half and they've also stopped paying some of the groups up in syria that are keeping them prep ped up so i don't think that this is going to result in a shooting war but you must take this situation seriously. neil: earlier in the week, general, there was some confusion as to whether this

intelligence was debatable, in other words that iran, you know, is up to no good or is targeting u.s. interest or more to the point, u.s. in the region and i don't know how much you know and who you keep in touch with, but is it your view that iran has been the provocative one here and we were responding to that? >> yes, absolutely. when donald trump declared the i rgc and a subset the kurds force to be terrorist organizations they started picking up intelligence that made it very clear that iran was going to target american citizens in iraq. i was in iraq last week. before all of the news came out with the evacuation of the embassy while i was there all of this threat stream started to become very obvious, we started hearing about it while we were there, and i think that it's very real. i think it's legitimate and in spite of what the british have

said, they just must not have had that intelligence because i can tell you, they were taking it very seriously when i was over there last week. neil: i guess maybe we are so cautious these days as you know general post the weapons of mass destruction not there was any doubt they used to have mass destruction or not but when they were looking so now the question becomes whether we get dragged into something for all the right reasons, but then no proof. >> well, yeah, go back to 1987 you know, we had the incidents out there in the gulf, again you mentioned it earlier when we shot a plane was shot down, but we also, we saw ships out there, iranian ships or small boats that were armed, with missiles and that type of thing. we've been down this road before but it did not result in a nuclear exchange, or a hot war. i'm hoping that this one will end the same way. the iranians are hurting though

and let me say just one thing. i talked to a guy last week while i was in iraq that lives in tehran, he's an american but of iranian heritage, and he live s in tehran and he told me that the people in iran are sort of like the people down in venezuela. they support the radical lifestyle that has been forced on them and they don't support the government and the only reason there hasn't been a regime change from within is because of the irgc, which is so powerful, that overcoming them is almost impossible. neil: you know, i sometimes look as sort of a proxy on sentiment at whether it's building up to something bad, general, looking at the oil market. they've been surprisingly stable , ticked up a little bit on alarm about how things are escalating but not all that much and i'm wonder wondering whether they're being too cavalier about

it and there's something to really worry about here. what do you think? >> well i think that since the united states has become a major exporter of oil that it doesn't have the same impact that it maybe would have five years ago, when you've got one of the nations there in the o o opec area that is not producing enough oil. neil: general it's always a pleasure, thank you, thank you more for your service to this country. >> thank you, neil. neil: have a wonderful weekend. well forget russia, the attorney general of the united states bill barr telling fox he wants to find out if the american government, forget russia, the american government itself, was trying to influence the election my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but dad, you've got allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. are you in good hands? whoooo. did you know the exact same hotel room...

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>> i think people have to find out what the government was doing during that period, if we're worried about foreign influence, for the very same reason we should be worried about whether government officials abused their power and

put their thumb on the scale, and so i'm not saying that happened, but i'm saying that we have to look at that. neil: the thing about whether the attorney general was telling our bill hammer there that we've been so focused on the russians interfering in the election what if the real intent early on was our own government trying to influence that election? that's the implication of what he is saying there so let's talk to former whitewater independent counsel robert ray. it's always good to see you. nice to be with you this morning neil: it's aligning along, it's right where the democrats are saying republicans can't let go of this scandal, charge, and democrats and republicans divided as to whether looking at the source of the investigation is a legitimate one. what do you say? >> didn't the attorney general look measured to you? it's not suggesting one way or another what the outcome would be. he's going to take a look at it that's what you have investigations to do. i don't think it will take long.

i think that it's an appropriate thing to ask and where we got off the track here is theres no question that the investigation commenced with concerns about russia meddling in our election. the difficulty though, and the one that he's looking into, which i think does deserve focus is once that investigation commenced, where did it start to shift and to the point where the investigation turned toward investigating the trump campaign and that's a serious issue to be looking at and a democracy where it does have the potential of impacting the outcome of an election. just as much as one would be concerned about whether there were things pending against then -candidate hillary clinton with regard to its potential impact on her ability to be elected. those were things that one ought to be concerned about in a democracy and we should expect that the department of justice when conducting a sensitive

investigation does so through appropriate procedure, it does it carefully, it does it in a non-partisan way and there are, you know, legitimate questions asked about why the same group of investigators, for example, shifted from initially working on the hillary clinton e-mail investigation and then went over to the other side and started looking and investigating the trump campaign. neil: do you know what's interesting i was flipping around last night to a lot of the coverage of the other networks and there were even a few democrats are saying well we know that maybe a lot of this was precipitated by a dossier later proved less than credible but other things came up in the interim. then, fine. then what's wrong with looking at everything else that came up, and whether this was built on a false premise. if we're looking at intervention , of any sort, shouldn't that be a bipartisan wish? >> well you would hope so and that's why i started with doesn't the attorney general look measured when he is saying that i'm not pre-judging the

outcome and i don't know whether or not anybody did anything inappropriate here, but it is well to ask, and you would expect the department of justice to do so. neil: but you said it wouldn't take long. >> well i don't think we're talking about a 22-month investigation to get to the bottom of the question. neil: months? >> well maybe several weeks, maybe a few months but i think we ought to have the benefit of that well in time before the election. neil: and how would that differ, robert, from the inspector general report, which could come out any day. >> well understand that the inspector general's report of course is a review internally of the department of justice employees, and really only has the authority to refer for disciplinary action or to refer to the department of justice leadership, the question of prosecution, so the ig the inspector general, michael horowitz is a fact gatherer but he doesn't have prosecution authority. obviously what attorney general barr is talking about among other things is determining whether or not anyone should be subject to discipline, whether anybody more significantly should be subject to prosecution

for crimes that may have been committed. neil: he can recommend that? >> well the inspector general can refer and recommend for prosecution but only the attorney general can decide whether or not to bring a prosecution under those circumstances. neil: but would the lawyer he picked to handle that -- >> he would have prosecution authority all of the authority of the attorney general. neil: he could fall under the recommendations of the inspector general? >> and decide that the higher threshold of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the bringing of a federal prosecution under those circumstances would be warranted obviously that's a significant step and i think the attorney general appropriately was cautious to say look we're not talking about that yet. we don't know yet that's why we're having an investigation. i expect that we'll have the results of that investigation, you know, in plenty of time for the electorate to absorb all of that prior to the election. neil: i'm wondering whether people are fatigued by this but one thing that should stick with people whether they like donald trump or not, the fbi is being pretty zealous here, really spying and i wonder how would you feel if that were you?

>> i think people have questions and concerns, particularly when the issue, along with the obviously significant powers that the fbi carries whether or not anybody acted in a biased and inappropriate way, as the attorney general suggested as somebody tried to put the thumb on the scale here in connection with an outcome. that's obviously something that you do not want to happen within the department of justice. politics and prosecution should not mix. that also includes investigation s given the substantial powers that we have, you know, we give to the fbi and then i think finally, to say, there were people who were on notice within the department who had concerns about the steele dossier. why weren't those concerns addressed? were they addressed? why did information apparently relied upon coming from the steele dossier placed into the affidavit before the fisa court and why didn't the issues about the concerns that apparently people in the department have about the bias that was inherent in how that steele dossier came

to be. why wasn't that fully disclosed to the fisa court? though were all legitimate questions i don't know the answers to those questions and i'm not suggesting necessarily that anybody did anything wrong or criminal, but again, that's why we have an investigation to determine that. i think at this point given all of the water under the bridge here it should not take long, i don't think, for prosecutors and investigators now within the department and the u.s. attorney and the district of connecticut to be able to get to the bottom. neil: but you do have to wonder to your point, the president or the democrats feel about their own party, that we want to make sure it never happens again with russia. do we want to make just as sure that the fbi doesn't go flying off on a tangent or an attack line that might not be based on anything more. >> i think that's just as an important point. i do think separate and apart from whether or not anybody is subject to discipline or whether any crimes were committed and i

think we'll await the results of the investigation to determine it, but i think also third and finally and maybe most importantly, i suspect that what's going to result from this investigation is a tuning up of the procedures in play, at the fbi, and at higher levels of the department of justice, so that in the future if this ever does happen again, it is subject to very close supervision, all the way up to and including those politically accountable which would include the attorney general, himself, or herself, so that in the future, if we have an investigation of this sort we do follow procedure further thought of i think more appropriate thought is given to how we go about notifying a campaign in the midst of a cycle or not. neil: or not. >> and that those calls are made at the highest levels of the department of justice and those accountable should be, i mean that's what you want here, this shouldn't be one person's decision or one lead investigators decision within the fbi. this should be brought to the attention of the highest levels of the department of justice and appropriate call should be made.

i imagine in the futurities going to require the personal intervention of the attorney general and a written sign-off before something like this happens and also some understanding about what, how under what circumstances is the campaign notified about the fact that there may be potential infiltration by foreign sources with regard to that ongoing campaign, in the middle of an election cycle. neil: this is the largest and most far-reaching investigating power on the planet, the fbi. >> right. neil: and -- >> and there's not to say that that's inappropriate. there are occasions -- neil: but if you are basing that even partly on a false premise, don't the american people have a right to know that? >> i think they do and no one is suggesting that investigation s don't work off of leads. some of those leads don't always pan out or turn out to be true. we don't expect investigators to be perfect. neil: absolutely. >> but we do expect them to be responsible. neil: and to cease and assist when you realize it. >> and we also more importantly

expect them not to be political ly motivated when making judgments about people's liberty. that's the most important point. neil: but now the irony is the political view of this is that it's politically bias in reverse >> well that there's been some damage done on purpose to the attorney general's reputation, precisely because they are afraid of where this might lead. look, that comes with the territory, the attorney general 's well-able to handle that, but the investigation proceeds nonetheless. he's not going to be carried by anybody is my impression of the attorney general. look the question for the american people to decide is do you think this is an appropriate investigation? i suggest that you should, and we've explained now, or we've discussed with the reasons why and the american people ultimately decide and public sentiment will decide whether this is an appropriate vest gary cohen tori avenue to pursue. i think that it's important. i think it obviously does have the potential. neil: and just say what

triggered this, was it warranted what triggered it, and let the chips fall where they may. that was the argument for the entire mueller report itself. >> that maybe difficult for the current environment and i think that's what the attorney general is intending to accomplish here. neil: we'll watch very closely robert ray coming in on a saturday nonetheless getting spruced up. >> nice to be with you. neil: thank you, my friend. there we go we have a lot more coming up including the former vice president joe biden will be kicking off his 2020 campaign today in pennsylvania. where polls show him actually, remember donald trump surprised everyone winning the keystone state and he picked up the 20 electoral votes there. that was then what happens now, after this. growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source

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neil: welcome back, everyone. former vice president joe biden is kicking off his 2020 campaign in philadelphia, that is not by accident, new data shows he's up by more than 10 points over the president very early and we stress that, but it is an important battleground state and reason enough to understand why the president himself will be visiting the keystone state, on monday. we've got fox news contributor jamie dimon borelli, and jessica tarlov and setting up the shop in vice president that's his headquarters, it's not by accident is it? >> absolutely not, he's hanging out in his home state it's a very critical swing state and

ohio really shifted more to a republican state, at least on the presidential level. share odd brown was one of the only democrats that had his office not by accident and thinking back to the big rally where obama came out and michelle and jay-z and beyonce that rally was also held in philadelphia it's a huge diverse city with the complete backing. neil: i think jay-z lost myself. >> that's a new theory so i have heard about those pesky hollywood elites messing everything up for us. neil: but they aren't even elite i'm kidding, but if the president were to lose pennsylvania he's got to make up those 20 electoral votes elsewhere is it your sense where he makes up for it? >> he's going to make up for if that were to happen what you've got to do is look at the policies that someone like biden would be pushing for example,, energy he wants to reinstate the obama green energy policies, so look at the states where you have people who are in

manufacturing, for example,, coal states, states that provide energy for our country because we're talking about jobs and the last election was clearly about jobs in the economy and we're seeing results from the current president, president trump, his policies that are helping people across the country. neil: you know it's interesting, kat, as we're saying this now we're getting results of the australian election where conservatives are set to win a surprise comfortable victory here of the conservative government in charge had championed jobs, jobs, jobs, improving under our leadership and the climate change and that environment, which is the big issue in australia, because i guess the ozone layer is gone there and it's hot. so i would think that would have been more of an issue but apparently for voters going to the polls i'm not saying we are australia, but it could be a preview of things to come. what do you think? >> i don't even know why we're talking about this because bill

deblasio is clearly going to be the president. neil: you're quite right. >> it totally makes sense that he entered but it's quite interesting and i often do think that president trump should be doing better than he is in polls , because the jobs numbers are so good, because the economy is doing so well i think that he is to blame for some of that in addition to the media. neil: but people are looking at the cost of it. i know the liberals, it's actually in reverse in australia but the opposition party had been championing this green wave of their own, and the taxes should be adjusted to account for that deal with that and even though australian voters are actually very hot, physically hot. they went the other way and decided that this is very expensive. >> absolutely. it's more of a short-term thing that you notice whether or not you have money or not, right? you want to be able to buy things. i like buying things. neil: what do you think? >> i hate overheating and hate when i don't have money. >> [laughter] >> i guess australia won't be my house, but it's interesting

to look back in 2016, because obviously president trump ended up winning the electoral college but hillary was favored in the economy 52-41 in the exit polls and people still broke for president trump. i don't know exactly how that factored out obviously immigration was a factor for that time. neil: but he still had battleground states, pennsylvania included. >> michigan and wisconsin. neil: on the issue of jobs, addressing employment and security what did you make of that? >> well i made that there needs to be bullseye focus on union workers which is something that joe biden knows exactly about that was the first big speech he gave, he went out to talk to union workers. neil: and the fact that hillary lost a lot of those union workers. >> hillary lost the election between those three states by 77,000 votes when you think of a country about 310 million people you're telling me she isn't the president, neil breaking my saturday morning heart. it's not that many people in the main context of things but there's certainly an argument to

be made she could have courted those people harder. she went to orlando after the pulse nightclub shooting i'm not saying she couldn't have gotten back there but there was a legitimate reason she didn't say i just want to stay in bed today neil: but to your point earlier it's very clear if i'm the democratic nominee whoever it is , i'm going to live in those five or six states and ignore the other 44. >> people want to see you and hear you, and not to ignore the flyover states. neil: so, it's interesting the electoral vote, that was supposed to spread the wealth, that you visited all of the states and the irony they live in five or six, right? >> yeah, absolutely and with south carolina if you look at the primary schedule and the changes in how the delegates are counted and the 15% threshold, you see biden's strategy is very clear, he's softer in iowa and

new hampshire you'd imagine which is giving kamala harris, pete buttigieg, and bernie sanders who is softening himself as well. but we got plenty of time. neil: well i think kat tapped on it here. one thing that republicans and democrats can agree. bill deblasio really shouldn't run for president. >> no. neil: after this. i can't believe it. that we're playing "four on four" with a barbershop quartet? [quartet singing] bum bum bum bum... pass the ball... pass the rock.. ...we're open just pass the ball! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. yea. [quartet singing] shoot the j! shoot, shoot, shoot the jaaaaaay... believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

believe it! geico could save you fifteen percent need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites - even our competitors - so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. kayak. search one and done. neil: well it has happened, mayor bill deblasio officially running for president of the

united states in 2020 he's already facing a lot of tough opposition from police in his own city the man who organized some of this weeks more memorable times square process against the mayor joins me now, president patrick lynch. patrick good to have you back. >> good to be with you. neil: you don't like the guy, why not? >> it's not that i don't like him. i don't like his policies or where he's trying to bring the city. look the city was in a good place. his policy is going to ruin it. we feel safe on the street because new york city police officers made it that way. well i never saw him in the back of a car with our police officer s but what i have seen him doing is disrespect police officers, not support police officers and worse than that work with the city council to change the laws to make our job more difficult so he's going to say well the city is safe now. well the reforms he's making that's rapidly going to turn. unfortunately the next mayor is going to have to deal with it and the mayor will say it's fine when i was there because he was working on past mayor's hard work and more importantly

standing on the show with the new york city police officers the economy and the city is do well because the police officers standing in front of this building making people feel safe tourism, business, folks spending their money, tax revenue, that's all because of the work of police officers. neil: his people come back and say well the unemployment level has never been so low in new york city. >> maybe some of that goes with where the country goes but none of it would happen without the safety aspect. but he's running on that i'm a friend of labor. well ask a new york city police officer, with 30% behind other police officers that work on the same street corners as us, mta, new york state troopers, those police officers doing the work on the same corners is paid 30% more, we're the lowest paid police department in the country even though the city is prosperous because of our work. neil: but even besides your men and women, what's interesting is when people in this city who know the mayor well, republican or democrat a majority of both sides say no, no, we don't think it's a good idea. what does that say?

>> 70% of the citizens of the city said don't run for mayor and go away, don't even stay here. people looking forward to him not being the mayor so we can get the city back on track. neil: but wouldn't they then be saying well go ahead and run. >> no because look it'll be easy to say just get rid of them but new yorkers are reasonable folks they sense people, they need people saying look he's not genuine in what he believes. you can have someone believe left or right and respect their opinion because they believe. he's going where the wind blows. neil: what would happen if we had a president bill deblasio. >> i think the country would go the same direction as the city. we're on the cliff of going bad. we need to get it back. you need someone that believes in our system, that can stand up and be a cheerleader for the country as well as the city as the mayor should. he's not doing that. city employees dislike him and they know him most. neil: is your association a fan of the president? >> we're supportive of the president. we believe he supports police officers. we just went through police week where we honor police officers

who were killed in the line of duty yet the ceremony for the families very good with those families he connects with them. the white house was lit up in blue in support of police officers and he doesn't shy away from us. all we ask for is support and respect we get neither from this mayor, so if we become president , we wouldn't get in the white house and that's not a good thing. neil: we shall see patrick lynch thank you very very much and we did put out a call to the mayor, he hasn't returned it but i get that a lot. folks in the meantime the president is accused of being a racist for wanting an immigration system that is based on merit. in other words what you can bring to this country to help this country. one top border official says it would help fix our border crisis brandon judd is here, next.

>> everyone has something to say about the word they use " merit." are they saying family is without merit? are they saying most of the people that have ever come to the united states in the history of our country are without merit

because they don't have an engineering degree? >> you know, this business about you must speak english we'll give you points for speaking english and we don't want poor people. we only want those people who are earning substantial wages already. all of those things are not keeping in-step with the way that we treat human beings. some of those policies are racist. neil: you know, the policy whatever you think of the president, does not say anything about we don't want poor people or we're racist if you want only select people, italian and irish , you know, grandparents, parents came to this country based on what they could offer this country as well, whether think was a skillset that added that they added that could be beneficial to this country that was based then, and that it is now on merit, and the countries like australia, and germany and england and a lot of our favorite allies, all have such systems in place and apparently its worked out pretty nicely for

them and in our country's pastas you go by the statue of liberty its worked out pretty well for us so the read on all of this for the national border patrol council brandon judd. brandon obviously this is not being well received by everybody i understand what the president is trying to do but the impression that it left with some is that he only wanted engineers or only wanted high- paying folks when in fact, he's looking for a certain skillset which would be helpful to the country. should he have explained it more to include not just engineers, not just software developers but people comparing something as the wall street journal said in today's editorial of added value to this country. >> i think that everybody that listened to what he said knew exactly what he meant, and i think that he explained it will enough. those individuals that call him racist are going to use that card any chance that they get to try to disparage the president. they know darn good and well that this proposal is going to

be received very well by both the right and it's going to be received well by the independents and when they talk about being in lockstep with the way our country has always functioned, my ancestors are also immigrants but they did it legally. i'm sure that your ancestors most likely did it legally. the vast majority of people that are coming to our country right now are doing it illegally, and that's a problem and we have to fix it and the president's proposal does in fact lay it out and it fixes that problem to where the vast majority of the american public can agree and support it. neil: you know what's interesting too, brandon, say what we will about this is another popular thing that was established this week on the left that we just don't let people into this country and the latest tier registered more than 1.25 million did become citizens or get citizenship status coming into this country so if we're closing off borders to this country, we have a funny way of showing it. having said that i'm wondering

if there is added value in looking increasingly to those who have not necessarily engineering degrees or even college degrees, but who have the talent with their hands or mechanics or electricians, or they're good at doing the stuff that is not shamed on in places like germany where they very much value those skillsets, and that that's something we should emphasize as well but we don't do enough of. what do you think? >> yeah, why wouldn't we encourage people to come here that is going to make this country better and again, he's not talking about just caucasion people. there's a lot of engineers. there's a lot of skilled labor in the far east, in japan, in china, in these types of countries, there's a lot of people like that in india. these are not caucasion people so this is not a racist proposal this is a proposal to make this country better, and to try to crack down on illegal immigration, in order to secure the border which is something that he absolutely has to do. the other thing that you have to look at is look at who worked on

this proposal. this straight of juan de fuca kushner jared kushner has a good relationship with the democrats so when you look at that and the president removed himself from the proposal phase, because he removed himself from the proposal phase he's calling democrats bluff because he had somebody from a business standpoint, work on this, that in fact can get along with the democrats but they still just out of hand reject it. neil: we go into the race it just gets so silly and stupid we waste so much time doing this and all i know is my plumber when he comes to my house he has people, and he's doing very very well, so i'm just saying we need these skillsets. we don't have these skillsets. i think we'd be wise to look at the value of having more people who have all of these skillsets, but it's always a pleasure, my friend, brandon judd the national border patrol council president looking at the issues in a very realistic way. >> thank you. neil: meanwhile, i want to show

you something going on in south carolina right now, professor cornell west is at an event, this is taking place for bernie sanders in south carolina, so another crucial state and he is there as the former vice president of whom the professor is not a fan, is opening his campaign in pennsylvania. now, professor cornell was joining me, saying that there's a reason why bernie sanders is the winner and not joe biden. you won't believe why, after this. whoooo. did you know the exact same hotel room... ...can have many different prices? that's why tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites to find the lowest price on the hotel you want.

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you need to place yourself in the moment. you need confidence in the appliances you select to build the home and life you love. shop top-brand appliances at sears, including kenmore. sears, making moments matter. neil: you had said not too long ago, professor, of joe biden, i hope that i've got this right, i just don't think that a liberal

centrist can generate any of the deep fire that we need among the best sets of these among our citizens. you'll have to have somebody whose got a long history of longevity of integrity. were you saying there that joe biden does not? >> well, i think joe biden has a certain personal decency but we know with the history, he is a neo-liberal in the classical mode and neo-liberal is dying and that is dying and we either have a right wing populism or left wing populism. neil: all right he's not a fan of the former vice president. he is supporting bernie sanders, he is campaigning on bernie sanders as we speak in south carolina. let's get the read on all of this and how it's all political ly stacking up right now, very early in the process. we've got my wall street buddy gary kaltbaum, and very good retail watcher, democratic strategist, jessica tarlov. when it comes to the view of the ground level view of what

americans are doing, shoppers are doing, and that's really you want to reach to the average population, does bernie sanders connect better with that group than does joe biden or for that matter the president of the united states? >> i think bernie sanders is trying to connect to that group by spewing off things that really make no sense economic ally. i have a degree in economics, right? what are you saying makes absolutely no sense to the consumer if it's ever implement ed, but when you sit there and say -- neil: well in south carolina he's speaking right now but one of the things he's saying is that i am in touch with your needs. >> right but the needs are we want to have more money so we can spend it. he's not talking about what's going to end up happening if people get taxed 90% and those tax dollars goes directly to the government, they don't get re invested into capital into companies that end up hiring people, which end up then, generating more cash for people

to spend. it's a whole cycle and he sort of cuts it off right there with his rhetoric. >> i don't have a degree in economics but i woke up this morning, abdomen i see the front cover of the new york times and they have a little two-year-old kid dying of malnutrition in venezuela and i keep hearing from bernie sanders that we don't want the social in, we want different socialism but every proposal out of his mouth is how venezuela went down this road, the state taking over, demonizing wealth and success, telling the poor people that they will do for you and they keep it all for themselves and you end up going south and that's what you're getting. i'm not saying we're ever going to be as bad, but -- >> but if you have a government when they start telling the people what to do, or they know what's best that is going to be disastrous, and that's not what is, that's not what i would like to see for this country. >> as a resident communist on

the panel let me jump in here. >> [laughter] >> whatever, bernie sanders isn't speaking to a crowd filled with warren buffett, people earning over $1 billion, they're not talking to bill gates so there are more supporters of this just capitalism or democratic capitalism as elizabeth warren calls it and talking to a bunch of people who feel they've gotten a raw deal and their economy is stacked against them and the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. neil: are there enough of them to tip an election? >> i'm not a bernie sanders supporter i wasn't in 2016 either and i think his agenda is too radical for the country and i disagree with corn ell west, elections are one within the middle and you need to appeal to the center that is what joe biden is squarely focused on which is why he's only going after donald trump and not the republican party in general. i don't disagree with the economics of it but what i'm saying is that when you make the comparisons of venezuela not factoring in there's a wild

dictator there, that bernie sanders isn't even actually advocating for government take over of the means of production he's talking about democratic socialism. >> can you explain democratic socialism though? >> you do realize that bernie sanders once called for 100% tax rate on people who make $ $1 million, above that, every dime that you make over $1 million do you know what that would do to this country? >> listen, i think that it goes too far but when you look at the polling even the plans that elizabeth warren has put out, they are popular, because of the income and equality gap, and because people are -- neil: enough to win an election. we mentioned venezuela but even in places like france, making cradle-to-grave promises eventually you run out of money so i do think there's a widespread phenomenon that has to be addressed and i think this disparity between the rich and the poor sadly is a historical

norm and it happens and it is what it is so i don't know how many can be reached that way but i do know and this is to jessica 's point, gary, that there is a suspicion of wall street, of not you, but wall street. >> i'm clean. neil: that we know of and i think they're trying to parlay that and say these guys are doing great. you're not. the question i go back to is whether there are enough voters who feel that way in an otherwise booming environment, the stock market doing so well, the economy doing extremely well and unemployment levels at record lows. >> fortunately i do not think there are enough voters for the bernie sanders in a general election but without biden bernie sanders would be polling probably 35%-plus on the democratic side right now. so believe me, a lot of people, you know, shrug him to the side i don't. this really does matter because if the the state taking overall of the stuff not good. neil: and that, the issue to jessica's point, you're talking about helping kids to pay for

their college or cleaning up the world and all that and leave anything like socialism out of it they polled quite well. all right very quickly, we're now getting ready to hear from joe biden, out in philadelphia. he's right by "the rock" it statue so there you go. let's be honest. safe drivers shouldnt have to pay as much for insurance... as not safe drivers! that's why esurance has drivesense.® the safer you drive, the more you save. although i'm not really driving right now that would be unsafe. when insurance is affordable, it's surprisingly painless. ...

>> all right. a fast look at developments in philadelphia right now. the former vice-president joe biden is formally kicking off his campaign in the keystone state right now, a state, depending what polls you look at, he leads by double digits over the president. way, way too early. we'll be shortly going to bryan llenas, out of that shot there. in the meantime there's a lot at stake here, the biden candidacy might be energizing some in the party, but not everybody in the party is think he's middle of the road, been around too long and too white. new york democratic congressman was in the camp that said

winning is everything, whatever takes you over the finish line, and he took on ocasio-cortez. and joe, thank you. >> nice to be with you. neil: she says that bernie is much more in keeping with the pulse and passion of the party than sort of a luke warm middle of the road moderate who failed to get anything done on the environment, joe biden. what do you think? >> what's important to keep in perspective, you know, alexandria ocasio-cortez who replaced me or the woman who replaced mike capano in boston, or conyers in michigan, the democrats where the battle will take place is not in boston or new york city, it's in the bread basket of the country, in the rust belt of the country and that's where i think a more

moderate position is more appealing, i think, in a broad-based sense to garnering democratic voters. neil: when you look at her campaign against you, some people say this represents the real passion in your party and not the kind of reach across the aisle politics that you did. what do you think of that? >> well, i think after look and see are the results of the election. we won back the house of representatives, again not by taking my seat, but by winning a seat in new jersey, and winning seats in iowa, in pennsylvania, and-- >> in other words, moderates. when you gain seats in the house i think you're right, 34 were deemed moderate. >> i think what that means is we have a broad-based appeal. democrat can appeal to independent and to republican voters. neil: what does that say, i want to be clear, are you saying that a bernie sanders, as your

nominee, is more of a roll of the dice than let's say a joe biden? >> i think there are more opportunities in this primary of options. when bernie sanders ran against hillary clinton he was the only option if you didn't want hillary clinton. in this particular case you have a myriad of individuals, elizabeth warren and others who have similar positions to bernie sanders. neil: he's the one, believe me you remunde me and know well, polls can be fleeting and biden for the time being is guy who stacks up against the president in a mockup now election and that's subject to big, big changes as we've learned. what do you make of that, that he has the best chances to win? >> well, i think that joe biden has name recognition, served as vice-president, was a senator, a congressman. he has the background, i think, that it takes to be president of the united states and i think, even in my district. i don't believe that my district is a socialist district. ybl that my district believes in

democratic socialism. i believe it's the heartland that will make the decision not queen city, new york, boston or chicago, it's going to be in the heartland and the rust belt. neil: 14,000 difference between yourself and congresswoman cortez, close enough to say if it were to be run again, would she win again by a big margin or by even that margin. what do you think? already there's talk about primarying her, i don't know if it would be you. >> listen, i live by the sword and i die by the sword. i take my hat off to her, she won the primary and i wish her well. i want her to perform well for my former constituency. neil: so you're not going to challenge her in 2020 in. >> i don't have plans to challenge at this point in time. i do think that she's probably most vulnerable in a first

reelection and so, you know, she's become a national figure, an international figure? so many ways and that bodes well for her, i think, in terms of reelection. neil: so, do you think, that she will be challenged for the nomination? >> i suspect she probably will, but i don't have certitude on that. i suspect though that she will. neil: have you talked with her much? >> no, i haven't, no. neil: has she ever tried to reach out to her or you to her? >> we spoke briefly after the election and ran into each other a couple of times, but there hasn't been much communication between us. neil: so is she the future of your party or someone more moderate? >> i think the future of the democratic party is a strong one because we had the ability to really have a wide breadth of vision. neil: i understand that, but is she and her politics and her, you know, views, more in keeping with that or let's say yours? >> i think that she has a

component that is important to the democratic base and at the same time it's a big base and a wide base and i think that it's-- she's adding aspirationally to what democrats want. neil: joe crowley, thank you, always good seeing you. >> thank you, neil. good to be with you. neil: and in the meantime, brian y yen-- bryan llenas is back in the city of brotherly love. >> joe biden will be speaking near the steps of the philadelphia museum of art, those steps made famous in the movie "rocky", running the steps training for the biggiest heavy weight fight of his life. and today biden choosing philadelphia in the biggest race of his. and rocky lost the race, but biden hopes to lead to a win.

and biden is doing well in pennsylvania, a 11 point lead over the president in this state the only candidate to hold a double digit lead in this pivotal battle ground. trump became the first republican to win pennsylvania in a presidential election since 1988. won by less than 1% of the vote and did it by winning over blue collar workers in rural parts of the state. biden who was born in scranton, pennsylvania believes he's the candidate who can win not only here, but in michigan and wisconsin. biden will be speaking closer to 1 p.m., but we did receive some excerpts of his speech. in one he talks about he's the candidate that's going to unify this nation. quote, if the american people want a president to add to our division and lead with a closed fist and spew hatred they don't need me, they have a president who does just that. i'm offering to run our country,

republicans, democrats and independents. the latest polling shows biden's lead over the other contenders is growing, he's at 35%. up from 31% in march. senator bernie sanders is a distant second with 17% down from 23%. as sanders' poll numbers decrease his attacks against biden have increased and this week sanders criticized biden for taking a middle ground approach to climate change that isn't progressive enough. of course this week biden pushed back on that and says he's going to be talking about climate change in the coming weeks and said, neil, he doesn't plan on speaking ill about any of the democratic contenders. his focus is on president trump. we'll see if that lasts. the debates are starting in a few weeks. neil: all right. bryan llenas, you probably weren't born when the first rocky movie came out, young man. way to give away the ending,

hello. and bryan reporting from philadelphia. so rocky lost that first fight? we told you about the increased warnings in the middle east and even warnings for those who will travel there commercially on flights that are not military ones. exactly what's going on after this. orlando isn't just the theme park capital of the world, it also has the highest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source for personal savings and protection solutions. the workplace should be a source of financial security. keeping your people happy is what keeps your people. that's financial wellness. put your employees on a path to financial wellness with prudential.

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you're getting the right flight at the best price. kayak. search one and done. >> all right. we put out a warning to those flying on passenger jets throughout the persian gulf region in the middle east that be careful, be careful and that was enough to sort of raise concerns again. exactly what are we looking for in that region? what could happen that would prompt a warning of that sort? republican senator armed services committee member kevin cramer with us. senator, thank you for taking the time. happy saturday. >> happy saturday to you. do you think what is happening, are things escalating to the

point where you have to give a warning like that? >> well, neil, a number of things that are happening. the most important is that the united states is positioning assets in a way that designed to deter without escalation, including, you know, obviously diplomacy is part of that. but it's important to issue the appropriate warnings, to be careful because what you don't want to do is have an unintended consequence due to an unnecessary response to something, create a conflict or a confrontation that people weren't warned about. so i think that this is just the ultimate in precautionary right now. neil: you know, the president almost made light of the mixed signals we're sending and seemingly blaming his staff that there are a variety of issues. this wouldn't be the first administration that on foreign policy matters has differences of opinions, goes all the way back to jfc and different administrations given to the crisis at the moment, but this

seems to have divided the white house foreign policy team. do you know unequivocally that the intelligence that we have points to iran behind a lot of these buildups and attacks, for example on saudi oil interests, united emirates interests, do you know that for a fact? >> i do not personally know that unequivocally. i'm on the armed services committee. last week the intelligence committee received a briefing. we did not. we'll be briefed on tuesday and appreciate the administration, particular will i our leader mitch mcconnell facilitating that. i wish we would have gotten that so we're better informed. all around should be the president pushing back on those reports being exaggerated. there are some people more hawkish than others and some are

frankly encouraged by the president ramping it down a little bit. it's rare that donald trump is accused of being the moderator in the room i think we've found the right balance and he's sending the right messages and again, the concern is more about unintended escalation or situations than anything intended. neil: senator, a lot of fingers point towards john bolton, that he is stirring up something here that doesn't mean we should be stirring it up. any thoughts on your part? >> well, i don't know, but i think it's worth noting that sometimes good cop-bad cop is not a bad thing to play. we don't know what messages they're sending throughout the world. it's important that we have clear messaging to our allies and that they're comfortable. i think most of their anxiety they've expressed again, has been due to concern of escalation due to something unintended more than intended. so, i don't know what exact role ambassador bolton is playing in all of this or if there's a

legitimate difference, but it seems to me that the president has put most of that to rest and that, you know, all the members of the administration seem to be on the same page and i think that's important. neil: you know, a part of-- i know you'll get your briefing on tuesday, senator, i know you want to be cautious here as you should be. there have been reports of missiles in boats, iranian boats. the iranians say it's purely for defensive purposes and we fear it might be for offensive use for american personnel in the region. both sides seem to be misreading the other. that's a safe conclusion to make. how is this dialed down? >> well, i think it's starting to dial down, neil. the reports you're referencing with regard to missiles. we've seen more reports that some of the missiles have been removed. both sides, either side wants a confrontation for a very good reason and yet at the same time when you think about the iranian leadership, for example, that

they have a particularly difficult challenge because on the one hand they don't want the confrontation, certainly a military confrontation, on the other hand they don't want to appear weak to their own people because at the end of the day, the iranian people, they have a long history of wanting something different than what they're getting and i think they're growing increasingly uncomfortable from within with their own regime. so, while it seems like a powder keg and it is and could be, in my mind there's also opportunity in iran to influence freedom moving people. but it's not just about iran, right? the whole community is in a bit of turmoil. they have plenty of surrogates in the region and obviously, there are oil interests. and you know, the oil assets that have been sabotaged, that have been vandalized raises concern in the light of our additional sanctions on iran oil and ability to export oil. it's not just iran, but you ramp it down how the president is

doing it now we tamp it down by deescalating rhetoric and sometimes you have to give your adversary a little room to maneuver and allow them to back out with grace and dignity. very good seeing you, sir, thank you. >> always my pleasure, thanks, neil. neil: in the meantime we're watching the border closely, a lot more my grants are pouring in. and homeland security johnson say why isn't congress doing more to help out? after this. no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our car insurance with geico. we could have been doing this a long time ago. so, you guys staying at the hotel? yeah, we just got married. oh ho-ho! congratulations! thank you. yeah, i'm afraid of commitment... and being boiled alive. oh, shoot. believe it. geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance. that guy's the worst.

mno kidding.rd. but moving your internet and tv? that's easy. easy?! easy? easy. because now xfinity lets you transfer your service online in just about a minute with a few simple steps. really? really. that was easy. yup. plus, with two-hour appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. now all you have to do is move...that thing. [ sigh ] introducing an easier way to move with xfinity. it's just another way we're working to make your life simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. >> when you hear the 20-some odd democrats running for president, a couple have mentioned an emergency in all that, and they're leery about it. >> 200,000 people in two months on our southern border is a

crisis. now what are we going to do about it. neil: so they don't say that. does that matter to you? should they just say it? >> i want to make this point. everyone paid attention a month ago when i said it was a crisis. i'd like people to pay attention to what the solutions are. i owned this problem for three years and you have to address it at the source. suspending aid to central america is the exact wrong thing to do. neil: all right. that was the secretary of homeland security under president barack obama, jeh johnson telling me obviously there's a cries cities-- crisis on the border and parts of the president's plan will not fix it. and governor, good to see you. >> good morning, neil, good to be with you. neil: same here, governor. one of the things that came to our attention is the president posts his plan, kicking around the idea of transferring those who are prosecutor uteded -- prosecuted to other points,

florida has been mentioned and the southeast to deal with the crush of people coming in. any thoughts on that? >> well, i do have some thoughts on it. the more i hear about shipping some of these people out of our states that are on the border, maybe they'll feel part of our pain we've had to live with so long and will encourage us. those people ought to step up and get a hold of those members of congress to get something resolved. it's been unfair those of us that are in the border states had to absorb all the issues and the bad press and the costs that have taken place. you know, we know that we have a crisis and everybody knows it's not a manufactured crisis and we just can't absorb it and i think maybe we ought to share some of that pain so i hope they do it. neil: you know what's interesting, governor. and this president at least made this front and center issue, but he isn't getting as much high marks in that regard. more so for the economy than certainly dealing with

immigration where americans don't give him as favorable a grade. maybe democrats look at that and say, well, that's what happens when you make it a signature issue. you say? >> well, i say that they don't -- that they don't want our borders secured so they don't want to even pretend that we have an issue down there, and of course, we all are thrilled about the economy so that's on the top of the list, but the bottom line is, is that we all know that we have a huge crisis. they need to step up and give him credit for thinking outside of the box and coming forward with proposals. and we need to initiate it. it's a very pragmatic that he's just initiated and will make a huge difference, but they don't want to come to the table. they don't want to discuss it. they want to turn a blind eye and jeh johnson understands the issues and problems and i worked with him. he did the best he could when he was there under the circumstances, but i think that now that we have a republican

president that understands it, that's willing to step up and make a difference, then he has to do what he needs to do, but we need pressure, now is the time. i think we can get something done maybe. neil: you hope, right? you're famous for that famous shot where you're getting in the president's face not doing enough to help you out at the border. this president put out a plan this week he says will alleviate a lot of the problems we have, but he's complicated it, democrats say, by this merit-based plans for people 0 who get green cards and the like, that people like maxine waters goes so far as to call racist, what do you think. >> that's outrageous, anytime we do anything then we're racist. the our immigration system has been in flux, hasn't worked for years. it was addressed way back at

world war ii and 1996, to give certain people ability to get members of their families over here or bring home their war brides in world war ii. we need an immigration plan based on merit. we need to protect the people of america. we need to have those immigrants that come in, but they need to have some skill sets. they need to add, add to our country. and other states, other states-- other countries do it based on merit so why can't we base it on merit? we just can't not have open borders to allow everybody to come and democrats sit back and don't want any borders or rules or laws at all. it's unfortunate. and i think the president-- >> and getting together on this issue on your point, governor. thank you for taking the time. >> thank you so much, neil. neil: governor brewer. in the meantime, apple ceo tim cook wrapping up a commencement

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>> is she the future of your party or someone more moderate? >> i think that the future of the democratic party is a strong one. she as a component that is important to the democratic base. at the same time it's a big base and it's a wide base and i think that she's adding aspirationally to what democrats want. neil: all right. joe crowley talking about alexandria ocasio-cortez, not necessarily being the future of the party, but a very important part of that party, a nice way of saying that she will probably be challenged. he's not necessarily the guy who will be challenging her or primary her, but she can look forward to that. but saying of the 40 or so gained seats in the house most were moderate, that, you know, ocasio-cortez was the exception rather than the rule. back with us, fox news comment

taters. >> joe crowley is correct. >> i watched "knock down the house", and i i watched that and she was the only one who won her race and i think what joe crowley is trying to focus on, the reality of what's going on in the party. something called the new democrat coalition. it's much more progressive than the progressive caucus. they get the air time, they're the ones on social media and e ilan omar, rashida tlaib or o ooaoc. they're not getting rid of private insurance or going as

far as aoc on this. neil: never pooh-pooh that. >> never pooh-pooh, leave that to me. making an overturn saying these are great ideas, but like on the green new deal i'm going with reinvigorating barack obama's plan because that worked for us for eight years and reelected us on is a-- i say i take your point, but i'm going to do in. neil: i'm looking at bernie sanders in south carolina, to an earlier point, a guy like that to espouses a lot of the ocasio-cortez views the and campaigning with him. >> she didn't endorse medicaid for all. neil: they're more or less on the same dna, right? what do you make of that if you're donald trump? >> well, first of all, with bernie sanders and ocasiocasio,

they-- she's an avowed socialist and he as well. neil: she's not a fan of biden's, right? >> from what i've seen especially with the green new deal because they basically took his knees out when he'd had the trial balloon like last week, that he wants to do a middle of the road kind of climate change plan. and so, that didn't go over well, so he's kind of stuck in the middle. neil: what did she say you can't shake things up just being stuck in the middle. >> he's stuck in the middle because he doesn't want to alienate the blue collar workers going after the green new deal or the environmentalists. he's got to try to walk the fine balance and figure out what he's going to do with climate change, but he did send up the trial balloon, didn't go well. neil: the last time, not that it hasn't happened since, the last time in a big way when the democrats went with their passion, georgia 1972, ed muskee started the safe alternative and

imploded in new hampshire all of this was decades before you were born and i remember it like it was yesterday and we know what happened to mcgovern, lost in a landslide to richard nixon and we know what happened to richard nixon, and i had a point, be careful following your passion, not enough of people of persuadable mentality will share that and feel the same way about the guy you nominate, which is bad news for bernie sanders. >> right, and that's, studies show that's especially true in elections where the party is trying to take down an incumbent. people want a safe choice more when they feel like it's going to be more difficult and i feel like someone like biden seems like a safer choice than someone like bernie sanders. neil: remember the sacred choice in 2008. >> was hillary clinton and that didn't go so well, but i think it's-- they still have an influence, some of the more radical people even if they might not be the nominee, you can see how they're

pushing other nominees further left. biden being a moderate is a strength and seen as a bit of a weakness from some of the more progressive wing of the party and some people-- i have some super, super progressive friends saying if you're not 100% pro choice in all instances and 100%, i'm not going to vote for you. and we might have the same situation in 2020? i'm looking you were mentioning unions, for example, and you touched on it as well. that union vote still went to hillary clinton, but didn't go as much for the democrats as much as in elections past. i'm wondering, that's the coalition that trump built to win the industrial states, electoral votes and a w is a w. and that biden can reach that group, but many argue, so can sanders. but what is your sense who reaches more that group? >> my sense is that joe biden does. in all of the key demos, he's

doing extremely well and african-american voters is the most critical of the demographics. african-american wins are the ones that deliver wins for democrats. neil: and they turn out. >> they turn out when they're excited and joe biden is someone who listened to jim cliburn and a lot of endorsements from from south carolina, for instance. they know joe. we've been around with him for ages and think back to the summit where bernie sanders said i marched with mlk and got booed by minority voters. his argument he'd been there for the black community is not resonating for them. union workers say i know joe. black voters saying i know joe. women as well and shaving off some of the millennial and gen x sport that bernie sanders was hanging onto and now bernie is in the low teens and he was a lot higher before biden got in. neil: a new fox poll, they're

democrats are split and 41% think it's all about attacking the president, and we see this through our own prisms, i get it, but i also see republicans followed on the subject of their investigation into the investigation, also being justified, republicans say it is, and democrats saying it's not. i'm wondering where the whole investigation things sorts out for 020. >> i think i misspoke earlier. i meant the trial balloon was sent with the green new deal with joe biden, not promoting the green new deal, excuse me. so i think i misspoke. neil: and essentially, it's important, but not his solution isn't what's registering, but on this the investigation-- >> with the investigations i think the democrats have overreached. they've gone after the president's tax returns and they still are. with the whole russia collusion, there was nothing there, they're still saying there's something

there. with the kavanaugh hearings, that was a circus, what they don't want to talk about, this is a grand distraction, economy, jobs created, record low unemployment numbers, the first quarter gdp, 3.2%, which is a great number under president trump. more jobs than there are people to fill them, consumer confidence is up, consumer spending is up. the democrats don't want to talk about that and so they're distracting voters with all of this circus atmosphere with more investigations. >> i'm not sure how many voters are distracted though necessarily. i think they're trying to. >> and some will pay attention, but i really don't think that that many americans are getting up every morning and the first thing, i wonder if they're going to get trump today. hope they get trump today and there are some and that is kind of sad. neil: if the economy was the front and center issue you would think it would be. pennsylvania just recorded lowest unemployment rate in history and in pennsylvania, you

know, joe biden is leading by double digits. just a flash of the moment. >> because i think at the same time president trump himself tends to distract from the economy at times. neil: i agree with that, between his tweets and gets the message. that bedevils republicans, an incredible boom. whether you want to give him the credit or not, i always think we give too much credit to presidents and too much blame to presidents as well. that shouldn't be happening. >> i completely agree, that shouldn't be happening. i think if the president were to do a better job of saying, look how much better off economically than under obama. and stay off of roasting celebrities on twitter. neil: you don't think that the dean martin approach works or-- . i've laughed myself, but if you really are trying to, you know, win in 2020, you might want to focus on some of the good things rather than distracting your voters. neil: and that includes the nominee? >> and right now is looks like biden. >> deblasio. >> i think the safe pair of

hands argument is factoring into this, and even people who say i don't agree with the policies, but i just want somebody who can beat president trump. neil: president deblasio. >> i cannot say that as a bloombe bloomberg acolite. neil: you never know. we will have more after this.

>> all right. we've got some very threatening weather across a lot of state in the country particularly in the midwest. since yesterday morning, with more storms expected to hit throughout the weekend bringing the possibility of dangerous conditions, including golf ball sized hail and heavy strong winds and much worse the adam klotz following this all. >> hey, neil.

we saw yesterday morning and anytime we see warm air and cold air bump into each other we have a chance of severe weather. we see the pile of warm weather and behind it falling quickly into the 50's. right along this line we've seen severe weather the last 24 hours, we're going to get more of it. these are storm reports and every one of those little red triangles is a report of a tornado and we're likely going to see more of those over the course of the next 48 to 72 hours, probably lingering all the way into monday and maybe monday being the worst, but our severe weather threat for today highlights in the area there of eastern texas and running into arkansas and everything in the orange area has about at least a 10% chance of a 25 mile area of getting a tornado today. so a large area when we could see some damage with this system as we're tracking it today. this is going to be the line of storms, it doesn't happen so much in the morning. if you see the daytime heat pick up, the afternoon and evening hours and running overnight into early tomorrow morning, that's going to be the worst time frame for this. again, you're looking at eastern

texas running up across arkansas before this entire system moves on. so highlight this big area here, saturday into sunday and this drifts into the midwest and more into indiana, ohio and michigan and back into monday perhaps more severe weather, an another round of storms and moves back and we'll see this lineup again. neil, i leave you with this. if we're talking about the big storms, we're talking flooding. this is rain up and down the middle of the country. there's been so much flooding in the mississippi and there's going to be more. even with the big storms, even if you don't see that, likely going to see heavy rain and that could cause some flooding. neil: adam klotz, thank you very much. my friend. and all right, we're still following the vice-president, former vice-president joe biden holding a campaign kickoff in philadelphia. that's his new campaign headquarters. a lot of people are saying he's got a very good gaffe-free first week of his campaign, but we know one thing recording biden that he said regarding biden

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>> all right. vice-president, former vice-president, i always say that, but you always have the title, right? you always have that title. the former vice-president joe biden is kicking off the first week free of any gaffe, many beg to differ with something he had to say about china, take a look. >> china is going to eat our lunch, come on, man. they can't even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the china sea and the mountains in the east, i mean, in the west. they can't figure out how

they're going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. i mean, you know, they're not bad folks, folks, but guess what? they're not-- they're not competition for us. neil: could that come back to bite him? many said, including those on the campaign what he meant to say when you hear that is it could be selth the stage for problems down the road. and gary is back with us. and herzog and cornell, and what do you make of that, those are comments he may come back to regret that china is a threat, a realistic threat and certainly could be a military threat. so, he pooh-poohed it to his detriment. >> depends what you mean by swept, and it was over simplistic description of what china is capable of. and what he left out, a coordinated approach to economic growth and politically and the initiatives the influence play. i think the oversimplicity of

that is going to create that down the line. neil: he could come back and say we're in the middle of a potential trade war with the chinese and this president is trying to deal with it, chuck schumer and nancy pelosi are urging the president to get tough, remain tough. does biden risk of being out of sync with his own party on that issue? because a lot of union members fear china right now. >> yeah, to your point, i think that things are moving quickly and when he makes a statement like this, things could change in three months or in the next week, so when you make a statement like this, it dates you a little. and point two, it's pretty general. what is he specifically talking about there? there are so many different moving parts. could it be a threat in one instance in possibly, but when it comes to trade, you know, things could change within the next 72 hours. >> we're going to get the big

biden china private very soon, i can promise you that. look, xi was just in europe cutting deal after deal after deal. and by the way, on a small note, yesterday, a money losing chinese coffee company raised $650 million u.s. dollars to compete with an american company, if you want anything that exemplifies competition with china, that's small, but this is big stuff. you have how many, 1.4 billion people, $14 trillion economy and a very aggressive government, you cannot argue that point. neil: he's going to turn that around with a point of clarification. we're going to hear clarification to say and get your thoughts on this, this response the president has had, whether you agree that china is a threat or not, is leading to higher tariffs here, government don't pay that, we do and he'll no doubt remind that that it's donald trump's tariffs that have

you paying up to 25% more for items and ultimately will make a point with voters. do you agree with that? >> he'll definitely try to do that. unless we see a big impact on economic growth he'll have to go somewhere else to make a point. and what's so intriguing, missing from this competition. what can this competition with china inspire us to do? we should be talking about education, about the fact that 40% of chinese graduates every year are in science, technology, engineering and medicine. this is all about tech, innovation, ip. that's the crux of the tariffs. neil: not a mass communication major. are you worried about this china-u.s. rift, biden notwithstanding. you follow the retail industry very well and that can't be ignored. the longer this drags on and walmart warning about it, target warning about it, and even macy's wonk about it. >> the retailers keep warning

about it. they're warning about it because it's hard to move manufacturing from the vendors that they get these products from out of china into different areas. neil: a increasing number have. >> they're trying. it doesn't take months, it takes years to do that. unfortunately, the consumers, we're not going to pay the tariffs, we're going to pay the increase in prices that the retailers pass on to the consumer. neil: it's one thing to absorb 10%, but it's one thing to absorb-- >> and i said this i think on thursday, a family of four is probably going to see a cost of about $500 annually if these tariffs are implemented in terms of pricing, but again, you know, this is-- we're looking at the long-term here. if these vendors cannot move their manufacturing out of china, then we're going to see the real impact on that. >> there are too many defenders of the tariffs, they keep saying we're strong, china is weaker. if china gets weaker with a europe that stalled, that can affect our economy. if our economy heads south we

have something called november 3rd, 2020 that will affect the election in very big way. i can promise you. donald trump does not win with a weakening economy and a war soft market. higher costs to the consumer will not help the economy, never has, never will. neil: let me ask you, begin with you, ann. will we have a trade deal with china? it doesn't matter what kind of a trade deal, within the next year? >> i think so. i think this is going to be something that needs to be put to bed before 2020. neil: what do you think? >> of course he wants to win the election, he's going to make sure that happens. neil: you're so cynical. >> you saw an easing yesterday the, we're not going to get a deal, we will have a truce and we'll get past it because 2020 matters. neil: it does. what day is that? >> i'm sorry. neil: guys, thank you all very, very much. that wraps up our two hours. thank you very much. we'll be following this up later back at 4:00 here. including the promise of china to stick it back to the united

states bragging that they look at things in 5,000 year terms. think about that, that's a couple of market cycles there. all right? 5,000 years, that they could fight fire with fire, so who is the tough guy? more fox now. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source for personal savings and protection solutions. the workplace should be a source of financial security. keeping your people happy is what keeps your people. that's financial wellness. put your employees on a path to financial wellness with prudential.

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>> investigating the investigators. as they look at a contempt on bill barr, they're look examining the origins of the mueller probe. welcome to news headquarters from washington, i'm kristin fisher. leland: welcome back. kristin: thanks. leland: it seems like so long ago. i'm leland vittert. and the attorney general telling fox news that the allegations that he lied to congress is, quote, laughable. garrett tenney